Monat: Oktober 2018

Worked Further With Encryption On Linux

I looked into the command line options for partition encryption on Linux today. It is possible to have more than one key to encrypt/decrypt a partition. I tried first to add a further encryption key (passphrase) to the partition. But first I had a look into the keys that already in the wallet of the partition with:
cryptsetup luksDump <device>
e.g.: cryptsetup luksDump /dev/sda3

I got a list of key slots. Only the key slot 0 has a value. It contains the encryption key (passphrase), which was set during the installation.

I could add a new encryption key with the command:
cryptsetup luksAddKey <device>
e.g.: cryptsetup luksAddKey /dev/sda3

I had to add the passphrase of the already existing encryption key and could afterwards insert a passphrase for the new encryption file (twice, because of verification). The passphrase will not be visible during typing.

I rerun the cryptsetup luksDump command and got the information that there were occupied two key slots yet, the slots 0 and 1.

Because there are two encryption keys available for this partition yet, it is possible to remove one of them. I use the remove command for this:
cryptsetup luksRemoveKey <device>
e.g. cryptsetup luksRemoveKey /dev/sda3

I was asked for the passphrase of the encryption key that I wanted to remove. I typed in the passphrase for the key on slot 0 and the key from this slot were removed. I checked this with the cryptsetup luksDump command. The key slot 0 was empty yet.

I added a further encryption key with the cryptsetup luksAddKey command. I had first to submit the passphrase of one of the available keys for the partition, in this case the passphrase for the key in slot 1. Then I could add a new key by typing in its passphrase twice (to verify it). I checked again with the cryptsetup luksDump command. The new encryption key was writen to first available free key slot, in this case key slot 0.

Experimentation With Encryption On Linux

I replaced the hard disk of my notebook and installed a fresh openSuSE Leap 15 distribution on it. I took this opportunity to get some knowledge about encryption using Linux. openSuSE makes it easy to create the encryption during the installation process. I could choose it for every partition with only one additional click. I tried it out with encryption for all partitions that I created during the installation process and also with the encryption of only the data (home) partition. I decided that the second option would work for me and thus I went with that option.

If I didn’t overlook something openSuSE offers only the option to set the first key for the encryption of a partition. Thus I had to use the command line to add further keys to the encryption key wallet.

Give Plone 5.2 On Python 3 Another Try

I updated my local git repository of the Plone development branch for the migration to Python 3 and run the buildout again. Everything went smoothly and I could start my Plone 5.2 site. I made some edits within the theme editor this time. I created already a copy from the default Barceloneta theme and made some edits on it and activated the new theme. It worked.

Myth About LibreOffice Presentation Templates On Extensions-Templates-Website

There was a post on the LibreOffice design-list this month that stated that no presentation templates were offered on the LibreOffice templates website: https://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/design/msg08869.html

I followed the provided link in that email and got a different picture:

Templates Website: Search for Presentation Projects

Uups, there were 45 projects found and some of them have already a lot of votes.

Change IN GPX File Export

I bought a gps sport watch some month ago and found a free software program to get the activity data out of it.  This program and software project is named ttwatch with regards to the name of the manufacturer of the sport watch: Tom Tom.

This free software is able to get the activity data from the sport watch and convert them into different file formats, e.g. the gpx file format. I compared the gpx output files, created by this software with the ones, written by the free software gpsprune. The output of this two programs have a different order of the attributes latitude and longitude. I read about discussions about the correct order of this two attributes and decided that I would like to follow the order of gpsprune. Thus I created an issue report for the original project and added the necessary changes to a fork that I created on my Github account.

Stop TDF Volunteer Work ==> More Time For Health/Fitness

Since I stopped my volunteer work for The Document Foundation because of the communications style and behavior from leading members of the project I had more time to improve my health and fitness. I use my spare time for frequent traings sessions, especially for a run in the woods or in the fields and cycling. Great experience because of this warm autumn 😉

Plone Theming – So Difficult ;-)

The Plone CMS/DMS came with a theming editor, where you could create a new theme and edit themes. You could copy an already on the site available theme or create a theme from scratch. It’s your choice. I used the theme part in the administration interface to copy the Plone default theme ‚Barceloneta‘ and save it under a new name.

Plone – New Theme Created From Default Theme

I could edit this new theme with the Plone theme editor (button ‚Modify Theme‘.

The Plone Theme Editor

The theme is based on the Diazo theme engine (https://docs.plone.org/external/diazo/docs/index.html#diazo-theme-engine-guide)

Gave Plone 5.2 On Python 3 Another Try

I updated my local copy of the Github repository for Plone buildout.coredev and gave the branch for the Python 3 migration another try. I run the bootstrap-py3.sh script and all packages were updated. Then I started Plone with ‚./bin/wsgi fg‘ and created a new Plone site.

I activated the multilingual add-on to make the new Plone site available in different languages. This added a special dialog to the administration page. I opened this dialog and added a second language to the site (in my case German). Plone created different folders for each of the two languages. I gave first the English folder a try and added a first page to it. Because I don’t want to use my time for typing I copied content from the website of The Document Foundation website.

Plone 5.2 on Python 3 – First Page

I published this page and choose it as the default page of the English section. Then I tried out the translation framework of Plone. I made a test with a translation of the page into German.

Plone 5.2 on Python 3 – Using Translation Feature

The dialog shows me the different fields of the English page and I could easily start to write a translation into German. If I had already local or somewhere else a translation of the English text, I could do copy and paste.

Once finished with the translation I saved it and published the page. I set it as the default of the German section. Users with German laguage setting or preference will get this translated page as their entry point now.

Fake News About Expense?

I read in an email on the LibreOffice design list that has been resources allocated to the extensions and templates website for about 25 thousand Euro (from a long time member of the board of The Document Foundation: https://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/design/msg08869.html). This generates the impression that there has been spent this amount of money to improve the site. But if you look into the accounting legers of The Document Foundation (TDF) (https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/TDF/Ledgers) you will get the real data. TDF spent in 2017 6399,44 Euro and in 2018 642,60 Euro; all in all 7042,04 Euro, which seemed only a bit less than 25 thousand Euro 😉

This TDF resources were used espially to migrate the content of the first LibreOffice extensions and template websites into the new one, for smaller fixes within the code, a professional buildout and maintenance environment and a training of two TDF staff member on the platform and its maintenance (myself wasn’t part of the training session).

The biggest part of the development of the new LibreOffice extensions and templates website was done  during my spare time. I tried to save as much as possible expenses for TDF, because I thought it would help to lower the adminstration expenses of TDF and free more money for the promotion of education and science.